Study on the requirements and options for RFID application in healthcare

This document is the first deliverable of the RFID & Health project. It provides an overview of the state of the art in RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) applications in healthcare delivery.

Some 325 sources have been reviewed in order to draft three ‘long-lists’ of applications, enablers and barriers of RFID deployment. In the next phase of the project, these will be validated and prioritised through expert interviews and a Delphi survey. Case studies will be used to further assess the costs and benefits of the most promising applications.

The list of sources which have been reviewed for this report is believed to cover all important scientific publications, policy documents and relevant articles from the professional press, in Europe, North America and Asia, related to the topic of RFID applications in healthcare. In addition, more general literature on RFID — technology, market, enablers and barriers — has also been covered.

Primarily, the report provides a basis for the rest of the study. As a stand-alone document it gives the reader an overview of all relevant issues related to RFID deployment in healthcare delivery. The line is deliberately drawn not to include the pharmaceutical industry, counterfeiting of drugs and tracking of medical devices as they move through the supply chain. This study is primarily focused on the delivery of patient care, mostly within the context of the hospital, but also including telemedicine applications.